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sociobiology

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sociobiology

[¦sō·sē·ō· bī′äl·ə·jē]
(anthropology)
A discipline that applies evolutionary biology to the study of animal social behavior, including human behavior; considered a synthesis of ethology, ecology, and evolution, in which social behavior is viewed as the result of natural selection and other biological processes.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

sociobiology

theory and research within the field of evolutionary biology which seeks to provide biological explanations for the evolution of social behaviour and organization in animals and humans. Proponents of sociobiological theories (e.g. E. O. Wilson, 1975) regard the problem of the evolution of altruism as a major challenge, since altruism implies a sacrifice of individual fitness incompatible with classical evolutionary theory. Proponents of sociobiology have been criticized for arguing their case from selective evidence, for making claims for behavioural ‘universals’ speculatively and assuming their innate basis. See also ETHOLOGY, TERRITORIAL IMPERATIVE.
Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000
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References in periodicals archive
Scott, "Brood guarding and the evolution of male parental care in burying beetles," Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, vol.
The significance of sociobiology is that it privileges nature over nurture in the perennial debate over whether human behaviour is influenced more by biological inheritance or environment.
He even invented a name for this new discipline: Sociobiology."
The investigation of sociobiology in chapter 3 is arguably the most important for Boyd's larger case.
(7) This group selection explanation for ethnic solidarity runs counter to sociobiology's insistence that genes and individuals are the sole units of selection.
The altruistic behavior of humans and other primates became the basis of the sociobiology of the 80s, whose boom began when Edward O.
Wilson's most important work since the publications of Sociobiology and Biophilia.
Chase and his McGill colleague Kristin Vaga reported in the April Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology that they haven't found clear behavioral signs of conflict, such as avoidance, in the mating of garden snails.
(10.) Eckland B, Theories of mate selection, Social Biology, 1968, 15(2):71-84; Wilson EO, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1975; and Buss D, Sex differences in human mate preferences: evolutionary hypothesis tested in 37 cultures, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1989, 12(1):1-49.
Attributing the apotheosis of American democracy solely to economic and political destiny, however, would disregard new and compelling evidence from the emerging field of sociobiology, "the conjunction of biology and the various social sciences" (Wilson 1978, 7).
The net of religion extends over questions of moral meaning and value." Possibly because he despised evolutionary psychology and sociobiology, Gould was comfortable making this distinction.
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